World News Quick Take

Agencies

CHINA

Lawyers protest school ban

Dozens of rights lawyers and citizens have flocked to an eastern city this week to protest outside an elementary school for preventing the 10-year-old daughter of an activist from returning to class. Supporters have launched a public appeal to pressure the school in Hefei city to allow Zhang Anni, daughter of democracy activist Zhang Lin (張林), to resume lessons, saying the child should not be denied an education because of her father’s activism. Zhang said yesterday that authorities forced him and his daughter to temporarily relocate to another city in late February when China held legislative meetings to install the country’s new leadership. Zhang says they returned to Hefei this week but the school refuses to readmit Anni out of worries it cannot guarantee her safety.

Philippines

E-cigarette warning issued

The nation’s health department warned the public yesterday against electronic cigarettes, saying the tobacco substitute could turn children into smokers. E-cigarettes have been gaining favor among Filipinos as higher tobacco taxes make smoking more expensive. Food and Drug Administration director-general Kenneth Hartigan-Go disputed what he said were claims by vendors that electronic cigarettes helped smokers kick the habit. “Wittingly or unwittingly, the electronic cigarette promotes smoking among children and the youth. It makes them less fearful of hazards and risks of smoking,” he said in a health advisory posted on its Web site yesterday. “The public is advised NOT to smoke at all and NOT to use cigarettes, cigars, or e-cigarettes,” Hartigan-Go said. A law that took effect this year will gradually raise the tax on cigarettes over five years, which would roughly double the price per pack to about 52 pesos (US$1.27) by 2017. A basic e-cigarette kit in the Philippines costs as little as US$24, featuring a battery-powered vaporizer that delivers a nicotine-laced mist.

UNITED KINGDOM

Plane fall man identified

Police on Thursday identified the man who was found dead on a London street after falling from a plane in September last year as 30-year-old Mozambican Jose Matada. Detectives originally thought the man was Angolan due to currency found on his person, but a SIM card found in his jeans later revealed his true identity and nationality. The body of the suspected stowaway was discovered on Portman Avenue in the suburb of Mortlake, southwest London, on Sept. 9 last year and a post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as multiple injuries. Police believe the man fell from the undercarriage of an incoming flight to London’s Heathrow airport and are liaising with authorities in Mozambique to find his next of kin. The road where his body was found is directly under the main flightpath for incoming aircraft.

UNITED STATES

Belt buckle saves man

A man was saved by his belt buckle when he was hit by a stray bullet during a shootout outside a Philadelphia grocery store, investigators said. The shooting happened at about 4pm on Wednesday, WPVI-TV reported. Police said a man was shot in the stomach on the street and a bullet also hit an employee inside 8 Brother’s Supermarket. The 38-year-old employee, Bienvenido Reynoso, said he was about to take a hand truck outside when shots started flying. He hit the ground and surveillance video shows a snack cake being shot off the shelf above his head. He says he did not realize he had been hit until someone pointed out he had a hole in his shirt. That is when he found the bullet in his belt buckle.